Candles
by Mysteriol
Summary: TxN, postseries. Touya, Nakuru, a wooden bench, and a small box consisting of five little candle sticks.


**Candles **

_TxN, post-series. Touya, Nakuru, a wooden bench, and a small box consisting of five little candle sticks. _

_A/N: _

_Yup, your avid, practically sole TxN fanfiction provider is here to save the blues, and brighten up your day! Set in the time of post-series, where TxN are already a couple. Don't ask me how that happened, I won't answer that, so it's up to your imagination to figure that part out yourself! What's most important is the fact that they rock my socks off. XDD_

_Okay, so that sounded totally illogically unsound._

_REVIEW! and make my day Touya-Nakuru crazy. _

_mysterio000_

**fic specially dedicated to cass, who is a fellow crazy TxN fan like me. CHEERS! hope you enjoy this one! **

Nakuru opened the box of candles in her hands, and took them out one by one. An array of colors appeared - green, orange, blue, pink, and many more as she amused herself by tracing a finger at the wax outlines of the sticks. The twinkle in her eyes was unmistakable.

Beside her, on the wooden bench, Touya frowned. "I don't get it. Why did you buy a box of candle for?"

She pouted, though not offended by any means. She offered him one stick, which he took in his finger non-commitedly nor interestedly. She had a smile attached to her lips, as she fiddled with the box. "Aren't these pretty? I've never seen anything like this before."

"You've never seen candles in your life?" His voice was laced with incredulity.

"Something wrong?" She retorted back, not rudely. A lighthearted tone accompanied her voice, and Touya responded with a string of inaudible mutter under his breath that she was not so interested in finding out. He was probably commenting on how dense she was, anyway.

She returned to playing with the candles, especially memorizing the feel of the wax against her skin. She was drawn to its colors as well. It was then when she shifted abit to his side, leant forward, and nudged him excitedly, "Hey, Touya? Have you ever wondered why candles are of this shape? Cylindrical?"

He shook his head. "Not really."

She frowned, her eyebrows arched. "Why not?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, and I don't bother."

She bit her lips. "Aw, it was something I wanted to know." She eyed the candles around and around, holding it carefully before her eyes, weighing it as if it was the most precious thing in the world. "And what about the length? Must it be of specific centimetres of something? Does the color actually represents something?" She sounded excited now as she tugged on his sleeves. "Are red candles symbolic of love as well, like roses?"

He sighed, for the umpteenth time that day since they had sat at this bench in the middle of a small, empty park. "I don't know, Nakuru, you tell me."

She was silenced for a while, before pulling away, leaning back in her seat. Stillness hung in the air, before she propped her knees up beneth her elbows, and rested her head on it. Still, she never failed to keep the candles within vision.

This time, aroused by curiosity and her innate excitement for these little sticks - as he would termed it, Touya turned to her, and asked, eyebrows furrowed. "What do you see in them, anyway?"

A small frown tilted her lips. "Oh, I don't know."

And it bugged him how she actually sounded honest, like she had no idea why, too. What was more, he sensed something in her voice that tugged at the heartstrings within him, that moved him at its guts, that created something stirring within the pit of his stomach. Melancholy? Sadness? He could not place a finger to it.

"You don't know?" He asked. This time, he was even more surprised when she had a small sad smile to her face. It happened only for a momentary brief second, but in that moment, he had seen it all, and he wanted to do all in his capability to wipe that trace of sadness - any hints of it even - off her face.

He wanted to make her happy again, he would try. If she didn't know the first thing about candles, and wanted to, he would teach her.

He inched towards her side, his eyes softening. "I don't think red candles have a meaning, you know, nor the colors actually." He smiled a bit at her, who had interestedly turned to him as he mentioned the subject of candles.

"Oh, so you don't do anything special to them?" She asked inquisitively.

He shook his head gently, and carefully pried one little red stick from her fingers. "Other than lighting it with a flame above to be blown out on a birthday cake, there's nothing really much. Candles are just candles."

At this, she became quiet, merely staring at the now empty candle box in her hands. The rest of the five candle sticks had been placed most meticulously in a row on the bench by her side in its spectrum of colors.

Concern etched his expression, and he leant forward, his heart missing a beat. Had he said something wrong? It was unlikely of her to offer no words suddenly.

"What's wrong?" He asked worriedly.

She quickly beamed, smiling assuringly that she was okay. "No, I was just thinking of what you said."

"I said something wrong?" This time, worry was revealing itself most apparently on his creased forehead.

"No, you idiot," she giggled, "It's nothing, Touya."

He didn't believe her. And as he watched her, quietly putting the candles back into the box, one by one, painstakingly and very carefully making sure not to scrap off any wax or that sort, realization finally dawned on him.

It was so clear. He should have known earlier. Why hadn't he seen it?

At her quizzical glance when he removed the box from her hands, he silenced her with a small smile. Then he sought inside for that particular red stick, and retrieved it from its space.

"What are you doing, Touya?" She asked, curious.

"You purchased a matchbox with it, too, right?" He asked. She nodded, and handed it over to him. Although inclined to ask what he was up to, she chose to remain silent and watched him.

Without warning, he lit the match with a strike on the frictional part of the matchbox, and touched the flame of small fire to the top of the candle, where the new fresh fiery crimson claws of the fierce element burnt above in its scorching glory.

Her eyes widened, and she turned to him, surprise evident in those similiar brown eyes that made her enthralling ; beautiful. It seemed as though she finally understood what he was doing. Her eyes seemed to glisten, whether it was the reflection of the fire within them, or the swirling emotions, he couldn't tell, nor did it really matter.

He offered the red little candle to her, a warm smile on his face. "This is what people do on their birthdays, Nakuru."

She looked up, a gigantic smile beginning to cross her features, as she happily accepted the candle, and eyed it. The lilac flame reflected off her eyes cast myraids of patterns into the sky. "It's so beautiful, and they look like those candles on Master's birthday cake every year!"

He lifted a hand to touch her hair. For someone like her who never ever celebrated her birthday before, nor even came to know about when it exactly was, a candle with a flame meant everything that was once missing in her life to her.

"You have to make a wish, and blow the fire." He taught her.

She smiled, and did as she was told.

He watched her eyes close, and her taking in a deep breath before releasing its pent air, before the flame vanished with it.

When the procedure was done, she looked as if she could never have been happier, as a refreshingly cheerful spark was alit in the corner of her eyes, something he had never recognized before.

And it made his heart swell with joy seeing her like this. He wanted it to last forever.

"Happy birthday, Nakuru." He breathed the words.

"It's not my birthday," she giggled, looking down at the red candle, "but it's okay."

He nodded.

"And it's a red candle, too," she looked up, a mischievious light to her eyes, "does this mean anything, Touya?"

He looked away, mocking a scoff. "Colors don't symbolize anything, Nakuru."

"Liar," she giggled, and it was then when she leant in to throw her arms around his physique, "but thank you for showing me how being a birthday girl actually feels like, Touya."

He gazed into her eyes, said nothing, and only brought her closer into his embrace.

The red little candle stick remained blissfully forgotten on the bench, and the rest of the four in the little small candle box.

**Owari **

_A/N: _

_Erm yeah, OOCness. Apologies! _

_REVIEW AND MAKE MY DAY TOUYAxNAKURU CRAZY._

_cheers,_

_mysterio000_


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